


Into the Closet

by jeeno2



Series: Short Stories From the Vortex [20]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Closets, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7930942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeeno2/pseuds/jeeno2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a visit to Jackie's the Doctor unexpectedly finds himself hiding in a closet.   Rose is worried and goes looking for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Closet

**Author's Note:**

> Written for arynrds on tumblr, who prompted: "Ten x Rose, in a closet, with a crock pot." This fluffiness ensued. ;)

“Doctor?” Rose’s worried voice filters in to him through the closet’s thin wooden door.  “Doctor, are you in there?”

The Doctor closes his eyes and fights against his natural instinct to answer her.  Maybe if he stays quiet long enough she’ll give up and wander back to the living room where Jackie, Mickey, and Sarah Jane are still sitting.  And most likely still laughing over what an arse he is.

But his feeble ploy doesn’t work.  A moment later there’s another sharp rapping on the closet door, and he knows Rose knows he’s in there.

“Doctor,” Rose says again, more sharply this time.  “Look, I know you’re in there,” she confirms. _Damnit._  “Can you let me in?”

The Doctor pinches the bridge of his nose, willing his heartrates to slow and his breathing to return to normal.

“All right,” he says on a sigh.  Slowly, he unlocks the closet door, resigning himself to whatever might come next.

* * *

 

This evening, for all its eventual calamity, had begun well.    

The Doctor had been lounging with Rose on the sofa in the TARDIS’ library, her head resting on his chest, his arms wrapped lightly around her waist. They had just spent the better part of a week negotiating a peace treaty between Jupiter 10’s warring factions and were completely knackered.

As reluctant as the Doctor had been to admit it, he and Rose were not only in dire need of a little sleep.  They both needed a real break from excitement and adventure, too.  

It was in that sweet setting that Rose had offhandedly mentioned it had been a long time since she’d last seen her mother.  

Under normal circumstances the Doctor would rather be the attending physician at an unmedicated Slitheen birth than spend an entire evening talking with Jackie Tyler and eating her food.  In the moment, however, the Doctor was almost as tired as Rose was.  What’s more, Rose had been so cunning – so insightful, so brave – during those horrible negotiations.  

In that moment he couldn’t have been more proud of her if he’d tried.  And so this time, he just didn’t have it in him to turn down her request.

“Sure,” he’d said, shrugging.  He could feel her smile against his chest, and it caused his hearts to flip a little inside his chest in a way that was both thrilling and unfamiliar.  He tightened his hold on her reflexively.  “We can go right now if you want.”

“Brilliant,” Rose had said, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek.  

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said back to her on a whisper, murmuring the word into her hair.

* * *

 

If only things had gone according to plan this evening could have been a perfect little respite for them both.

But nothing ever seems to go to plan for him anymore.

Resigned, the Doctor reluctantly opens the door to his hiding space.  He tentatively looks up at Rose’s face, more terrified than he’d care to admit of what he might see there.

Instead of the revulsion or fury he’d half expected, though, he sees her regarding him with quiet curiosity.

“Doctor,” she says, more gently this time.  

To his great surprise, Rose climbs into the hall closet with him and shuts the door behind her.  It’s very close quarters in there now, what with Jackie’s table linens, her crock pot, and other sundry items stacked up behind them on shelves.  Rose is standing so close to him it makes him not quite certain where, specifically, he’s supposed to put his eyes.

Which is kind of ironic, he thinks sourly – since that’s what got him into this whole mess in the first place.

“Are you all right?” she asks him.  She sounds concerned, which makes no sense at all.

The Doctor’s bottom lip juts out petulantly.  “Yes,” he says after a long pause.  He hopes he sounds convincing.  He knows he doesn’t.  

Rose only rolls her eyes.  “Why are you hiding in my mum’s closet?”

The Doctor runs his hands through his hair, his agitation mounting.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he asks.

There isn’t much light in here.  Only a small sliver of it pokes in through the little crack under the door. The Doctor, however, has excellent night vision, and is able to see Rose hiding a small smile in the palm of her hand clear as day.

“Well,” she says concedingly after a beat.  “Maybe.”

The Doctor groans and buries his face in his hands at the confirmation.

She reaches out and tentatively caresses his cheek.  “I thought it was cute,” she says, giggling a little.

Shocked, the Doctor drops his hands and looks at her, mouth agape.  “ _Cute_?” He can’t have heard her properly.  Can he? “Mickey called me out for staring at your bum all evening.  And then everyone started laughing at me.  What in heaven’s name is _cute_ about that?”  He shakes his head incredulously.  

Rose doesn’t answer him with words.  Instead, she stands up on her tiptoes and closes the short distance between them, pressing her lips to his for the first time since New Earth.

“I’ve wanted you to look at me like that for ages, Doctor,” she says, the words little puffs of air against his lips. She’s standing _very_ close to him now, pressing him back up against the shelves full of Jackie’s things.  The edge of Jackie’s crock pot juts uncomfortably into his backside, but he doesn’t care.  “It makes me happy, I guess, that you like my bum.”

The Doctor swallows.  His hearts are racing like he’s just run a mile, and his brain is spiraling as it tries to make sense of the words coming out of her mouth.  “You… you don’t think I’m a dirty old man?  For… um, looking at you tonight?  Like that?”  Because the truth of it is, he does enjoy looking at Rose’s bum.  Quite a lot, in fact.  He enjoys looking at every part of Rose Tyler, as loathe as he is to admit it even to himself, and as terrified as he’s been to have her find out.

Once again she answers him with her lips rather than words.  As she kisses him slowly, tenderly, his arms wind themselves around her of their own volition and he pulls her to him even closer, still not quite able to believe this is happening.

“I don’t think you’re a dirty old man, Doctor,” she confirms when she pulls away. And she kisses him again – once, twice, three times, just soft little presses of her lips to his.  She’s smiling up at him.   “I mean… God only knows how much time I’ve spent staring at _your_ bum this past year.”

The Doctor knows they really should leave this silly little hiding space and rejoin the rest of their group.  But as Rose winds her fingers through his hair and tugs him back down for another sweet kiss, the Doctor decides they can stay in here just a little while longer.


End file.
